Angry and defiant meeting in Tottenham*
by Sam Bogg
Thu 11 Aug 2011
African-Caribbean, white and asian people came together at the Socialist Workers Party public meeting 'From riot to revolution' in Tottenham last night (Wednesday).
Some 78 people came to discuss how to politically respond to the shooting of Mark Duggan and the subsequent riots. The meeting was angry and defiant.
Prime minister David Cameron has threatened to crackdown on people charged in connection to the riots, and evict these families from council housing. One of the most important discussions was on the start of a defence campaign.
Barry said, "When I grew up police had stupid hats and shirts, now we see the police increasingly tooled up. What we need is a defence campaign to make sure people arrested are not alone and don't get sent down with political sentences."
Another person stood up and said "All the politicians condemn the crackdown in Syria and Libya, and celebrate when these people rise up, but when we do they say it isn't ok."
Alex, 19, said, "The government and the police are going to be looking for vengeance. They are already talking about water cannons and plastic bullets.
"But if people don't listen, this will happen again."
Many people argued that the riot showed the real violence of Tory cuts.
Katie, 19, said, "People were getting upset about Carpet Right saying that it was a landmark. Yeah, it was a landmark. It survived World War Two and Hitler but could only survive one year of the Tories. What does that say?"
